These past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of reading Let’s talk about love by Claire Kann. I’d spotted this book not too long back online, I’d read a few reviews and was finding myself pleasantly surprised with what I was reading from fellow bloggers. Truth be told, love stories really aren’t my thing. As a sub plot they’re fine but I’ve never gone down the whole romance route before and had few intentions to do so. However, I’d never before came across a character who was asexual so I was curious to read it and how the author would portray them.

Spoiler free review

The story follows Alice, a young woman entering adulthood. Her relationship ends, after telling her partner she’s asexual, her best friends ditch her regularly due to being in love and her parents are adamant that she’s going to go to law school despite it being the opposite of what Alice wants. All of this is not what she intended when she planned her summer working at the library. Things being to change when Takumi enters into her life, challenging her friendships and her coming to terms with who she is in regard to her sexuality.

This is very much a coming to age story, there are no villans or monsters that Alice needs to fight, but she is overcoming challenges that most, if not all, college age readers could connect with.

One thing I loved from the off was the volume of representation in this book. It wasn’t your bad boy meets shy girl love story. This was a layered and well wrote story that was light-hearted, whilst also touching on some deeper more meaningful subjects. The characters were different races and sexuality’s what was refreshing to read. Alice is also a down to earth and joyful character, I found myself being able to relate to her on several occasions and feel that others would too.

There were a few moments that I quietly ignored during the book.  The jealousy expresses by Alice’s best friend did make me feel marginally unsettled in moments. However, it did move the plot along and add some excitement and conflict in the story. For me I couldn’t pin point a very clear timescale other than the book took place over the summer. At moments it was difficult to get a real grips on changing relationships between character and really invest in them as a reader as I wasn’t too sure how quickly or slowly relationships were being made or broken. But I was happy to brush past these point as I was thoroughly enjoying the story.

Overall

This book is what I’d refer to as a comfortable Sunday read, there weren’t any moments that would blow your socks off in shock or make you gasp at the pages (although a few good giggles did escape me), yet it was comfortable and steady. The plot wasn’t overly complex, so if you put it down you’d be able to pick it up again quite easily later on making it a pleasant read. Perhaps if you’re after a complex, plot driven novel, this book might not be for you. However, if you’re driven by characters and how they interact with the story, then get your hands on this book, you’ll love it.